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As a cultural trait, religion helps to define people and how they understand the world around them.
There are essentially two major types of religions, universalizing and ethnic.
• Universalizing religions appeal to people of many cultures, regardless of where they live in the world. Nearly 60% of the world’s population adheres to a universalizing religion.
• Ethnic religions appeal primarily to one group of people living in one place. About 25% of the world’s population follows an ethnic religion.
• Some religions are monotheistic, believing in one god, whereas other religions are polytheistic, believing in many gods.
• Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam are the three major universalizing or global religions.
• Each is divided into branches, denominations, and sects.
• A branch is a fundamental division within a religion.
• A denomination is a division of a branch; this term is most commonly used to describe the Protestant denominations of Christianity.
• A sect is a group that is smaller than a denomination.
Universalizing religions• Buddhism
About 400 million adherents (difficult to quantify)
• Significant clusters in China, Southeast Asia The Four Noble Truths Three branches
• Mahayana (China, Japan, Korea)• Theravada (Southeast Asia)• Tantrayana (Tibet, Mongolia)
• Buddhism is the oldest of the world’s universalizing religions, with 300-400 million adherents, mostly in China and Southeast Asia.
• Founded by Siddhartha Gautama in the sixth century B.C., Buddhism teaches that suffering originates from our attachment to the material world.
• Buddhism split into two main branches, Theravada and Mahayana, as followers disagreed on interpreting statements by Siddhartha Gautama. Theravadists cite Buddha’s wisdom, Mahayanists cite Buddha’s compassion.
• Unlike Christians and Muslims, most Buddhists also follow an ethnic religion, too.
Holy places in Buddhism. Note how most are located in northeastern India and southern Nepal because they were sites of important events in Buddha’s life.
Angkor Wat
Universalizing religions• Christianity
The largest world religion (about 2 billion adherents)
• Many adherents in Europe, the Americas Three major branches
• Roman Catholicism (51 percent)• Protestant Christianity (24 percent)• Eastern Orthodox (11 percent)
Other, smaller branches of Christianity comprise 14 percent of all Christians
• Christianity has about 2 billion adherents and is the world’s most geographically widespread religion.
• Christians believe in one God and his son, Jesus, was the Messiah.
• The Roman Catholic Church, with its hearth at Vatican City in Rome, is the most important religion in large parts of Europe and North America, and is dominant in Latin America.
• Catholicism also exists on other continents. The Protestantism began in the 1500s with Martin Luther’s protests against the abuses of the Catholic Church.
• It is the most important religion in large parts of northern Europe as well as the regions of North America to which many people from northern Europe migrated.
• The Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity is only dominant in Eastern Europe and Russia, but also has adherents in smaller populations throughout the world.
Distribution of Christians in the Distribution of Christians in the United StatesUnited States
Universalizing religions• Islam
The second-largest world religion (about 1.3 billion adherents)
• Significant clusters in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia
Core of Islamic belief = the five pillars Two significant branches
• Sunnis (83 percent)• Shias or Shiites (16 percent)
• Islam, with more than one billion followers, is the dominant religion in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as Bangladesh and Indonesia.
• Islam is a monotheistic religion, based on the belief that there is one God, Allah, and that Mohammed was Allah’s prophet.
• The word Islam in Arabic means submission to the will of God, and an adherent is a Muslim or one who surrenders to God.
• Islam is divided into two branches: Sunni and Shiite.
• In recent years there has been a rise in radical fundamentalism that has caused more division and conflict in the Muslim world.
• Most fundamentalists accept the holy book of Islam, the Koran, as the unquestioned guide on both religious and secular matters.
• Generally Islamic fundamentalism avoids Western influence and can contribute to intense conflict.
Ethnic religions• Hinduism
The third-largest religion in the world 97 percent of Hindus are found in India Many paths to spirituality. Caste System (based on reincarnation
principle) Many followers tend to worship Vishnu
or Shiva or Krishna.
• Ethnic religions have much more clustered distributions than universalizing religions; the vast majority of Hindus live on the Indian subcontinent.
• For thousands of years Hindus in India have developed a unique society that integrates spiritual practices with daily life.
• Hindus believe that there is more than one path to reach God; there are thousands of deities in the Hindu belief system and thus the religion is polytheistic.
Ethnic religions• Other ethnic religions
Confucianism (China) Daoism (China) Shinto (Japan) Judaism (today: the United States,
Israel)• Considered first monotheistic religion
Ethnic African religions• Animism
• The other major ethnic religion is Judaism, which was the first major monotheistic religion.
• Both Christianity and Islam have some of their roots in Judaism; Jesus was born a Jew, and Mohammed traced his ancestry to Abraham.
• Judaism is based on a sense of ethnic identity in the lands bordering the eastern Mediterranean.
• Jewish people have been returning to this land since the end of the 19th century, and in 1948 the Jewish state of Israel was created.
• Today most Jews live in Israel and the United States.
Animist Religions
Native American System based upon belief of in a supreme or Great Spirit that oversees the universe. It is interpreted by shamans.
Diffusion by migration diffusion north to south through the Americas.
Voodoun (Voodoo) West African, Afro-Brazilian, Afro Caribbean descendents
Multiple deities that control different parts of the lived world.
Diffusion by relocation diffusion as West Africans were forced to migrate under European directed slavery.
Figure 6-4
Figure 6-5
Buddhism Hinduism
Hindus bathe in the Ganges RiverLocals meet with Monks and present them with food.
Religions of the United StatesReligions of the United States
How would having approx. 30 million citizens who are atheist or nonreligious affect the nation? How could you explain why such a strong number exists in the United States?
Origin of religions• Universalizing: precise origins, tied to
a specific founder Christianity
• Founder: Jesus Islam
• Prophet of Islam: Muhammad Buddhism
• Founder: Siddhartha Gautama
Origin of religions• Ethnic: unclear or unknown origins, not tied
to a specific founder Hinduism
• No clear founder• Earliest use of Hinduism = sixth century B.C.
• Archaeological evidence dating from 2500 B.C.
Diffusion of religions• Universalizing religions
Christianity• Diffuses via relocation and expansion diffusion
Islam• Diffuses to North Africa, South and Southeast Asia
Buddhism• Slow diffusion from the core
• Christianity diffused through relocation diffusion, with missionaries carrying the teachings of Jesus around the Mediterranean world.
• Expansion diffusion was also important as pagans, followers of ancient polytheistic religions, were converted to Christianity.
• It diffused beyond the European realm during the age of colonialism beginning in the early 1500s.
• Islam diffused from its hearth at Mecca through military conquest across North Africa, Southern Europe, and other parts of Southwest Asia. Arab traders brought the religion to Sub-Saharan Africa and later Indonesia.
• Buddhism diffused from its hearth in northern India to the island of Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka) and eastward into East and Southeast Asia as a result of missionary activity and trade.
Diffusion of Universalizing ReligionsDiffusion of Universalizing Religions
Church of the Holy Selpuchre, Jerusalem
Limited diffusion of ethnic religionsUniversal religions usually compete with ethnic religionsExamples of mingling:
Christianity with African ethnic religionsBuddhism with Confucianism in China and with Shinto in Japan
Ethnic religions can diffuse with migrationJudaism = exception
Holy placesIn universalizing religions
Buddhist shrines
Holy places in Islam = associated with the life of Muhammad
In ethnic religionsHoly places in Hinduism = closely tied to the physical geography of India
Read the key at the bottom. Take a sampling of the sites and note the main deity or form of worship.
The calendar In ethnic religions = celebration of the seasons
The Jewish calendar
The solstice
In universalizing religions = celebration of the founder’s life
Places of worshipMany types: Christian churches, Muslim mosques, Hindu temples, Buddhist and Shinto pagodas, Bahá’í houses of worship
Figure 6-19
Sacred spaceDisposing of the dead
Burial
Other ways of disposing of the dead
Religious settlements
Religious place names
Administration of spaceHierarchical religions
Latter-day Saints
Roman Catholics
Locally autonomous religions Islam
Protestant denominations
Religion Vs. Religion
Religious conflict continues in many parts of the world, especially at the boundaries between different religions, branches, and denominations.These conflicts have complex historical, social, and ethnic roots and must be also understood in the context of political geography.For example, there has been longstanding conflict in the Middle East. The city of Jerusalem contains sites that are sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.There have been religious wars in Ireland between Catholics and Protestants that have their origins in the English conquest of Ireland centuries ago.
Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise?
Religions versus government policiesReligion versus social change
Religion versus communism
Religion and Conflict Case Studies
1- Afghanistan
Religions versus government policiesReligion versus social change
Taliban
Afghanistan 1996
Taliban government takes over with support within the country and from abroad.
•1979 The Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. Mujahedeen — Islamic fighters — from across the globe, including Osama bin Laden, come to fight Soviet forces.
•1989 Last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan.
•1996 The Taliban take control of Afghanistan, imposing fundamentalist Islamic law. Osama bin Laden takes refuge in the country.
Religions versus government policiesReligion versus social change
Once the Taliban is in power things change
Banning of western “non-Islamic” activitiesWatching tvGoing on the internetFlying kitesListening to music
Religions versus government policiesReligion versus social change
Soccer stadiums were converted
Executions and floggings
Physical Violence
Men could be stoned for adultery
Homosexuals were sometimes buried alive
Prostitutes were hanged in front of large audiences
Thieves had their hands cut off
Religions versus government policies
Taliban Islamic Scholars
Believed they were called upon by Allah to cleanse Afghanistan, purge it of sins and make it pure.
Taliban are poorly educated in Islamic law and history
Misinterpret the Quran
Religion and Conflict Case Studies
2- India
http://travel.nytimes.com/2005/11/10/international/asia/10narayanan.html?_r=0
Religion and Conflict Case Studies
3- Ireland
Distribution of Protestants in Ireland
Figure 6-23
Ireland was a colony of England for a long time.
Distribution of Protestants in Ireland
Figure 6-23
Ireland was a colony of England for a long time.
Northern Ireland Protestant Majority
Republic of Ireland Roman Catholic Majority
Distribution of Protestants in Ireland
Figure 6-23
Northern Ireland Protestant Majority
Republic of Ireland Roman Catholic Majority
• Discrimination in Northern Ireland
• Roman Catholics are denied employment at high paying jobs
• Roman Catholics are denied admission to certain schools
• Formation of the IRA (Irish Republican Army)
• Formation of the Ulster Defense Force (UDF)
Religion and Conflict Case Studies
4- Southeast Asia
Diffusion of Universalizing Diffusion of Universalizing ReligionsReligions
Originally a Hindu Temple Complex in Cambodia, now a Buddhist location of pilgrimage
Religion and Conflict Case Studies
5- Soviet Union
Why let them collapse? Why not tear them down?
Divide and diminish plan
Religion and Conflict Case Studies
6- Israeli/ Palestinian Conflict
Why Do Territorial Conflicts Arise?
Religion versus religionFundamentalism
Religious wars in the Middle East Crusades (Christians in Muslim lands)
Jews and Muslims in Palestine
Israel’s “Separation Fence”
Figure 6-27
Voodoo Shrine in New Oreleans
Vatican City
Religious Toponyms
Figure 6-21
• Compare religious toponyms within Quebec’s boundaries with that of Ontario’s, New York’s, and Vermont’s.
• Quebec has a predominantly Roman Catholic population and a large number of settlements are named after saints.
Mughal gardens are a group of gardens built by the Mughals in the Islamic style of architecture. This style was influenced by Persian gardens and Timurid gardens. Significant use of rectilinear layouts are made within the walled enclosures. Some of the typical features include pools, fountains and canals inside the gardens.
Mughal gardens are a group of gardens built by the Mughals in the Islamic style of architecture. This style was influenced by Persian gardens and Timurid gardens. Significant use of rectilinear layouts are made within the walled enclosures. Some of the typical features include pools, fountains and canals inside the gardens.
Mughal gardens at Taj MahalMughal gardens at Taj Mahal
Shalimar Gardens, Lahore, PakistanShalimar Gardens, Lahore, Pakistan
http://www.mughalgardens.orghttp://www.mughalgardens.org
Flower Detail from Shahdara GardenThe Emperor Shah Jahan Standing on a Globe
